Hey Dave - Well, one of the first things I wanted to do was check and see if Defender was still included. I searched all over the place and couldn't find it. On the way I found the changes made to the GUIs render them far less helpful and intuitive. I finally found Defender but it took some hunting down. I thought the revamped GUIs were awful, I just hate the new Control Panel. I miss the Quick Launch toolbar too....it's something I use quite a lot (yes, I do know I can 'pin' items to the taskbar) . I received absolutely zero notifications or warnings that no anti virus was installed....I knew there wasn't one, of course, and hurried on to download and install AntiVir, but I hate to think what some of my 'clients' would do (or more to the point, fail to do) under those circumstances.

I guess I am used to an OS including all the apps one needs for basic functions; decent photo/image viewer, email client, word processor, those sorts of things. Even Linux comes complete with the basic necessities and, if you need extras, includes quick links to many, many programs. I am probably a bit of a rarity, I mostly prefer the native programs, especially the email client. I do not like webmail and am not a Thunderbird fan....I guess it's a matter of horses for courses.

Of course, I may have just been feeling like it this morning and things may look rosier tomorrow.....it all started off badly when I got frustrated at having to hunt around for any mention of Defender.....the fact that it was actually there only made matters worse in the end. I'm trying to keep an open mind but at this stage I am definitely not a fan....I guess you could tell

Okay, so now it's your turn. Tell me the good things. What new features have been added to help compensate for all that has been taken away? What is it I should be enjoying and reveling in?

cheers mate.......JIM

Okay, tomorrow morning has been and went and come and gone and I have revisited Windows 7 and had a mother's look around it. I have to admit that my original appraisal was a knee jerk reaction and consequently somewhat overstated. A combination of frustration and getting out of the wrong side of the bed, possibly! Some real reservations remain however.

Comparing W7 to Vista is a no brainer for me.....I am lucky enough to be running Vista on a nice machine with good specs; up-to-date Intel mobo, Intel E6850 core (2) duo CPU and 3gb DDR2 RAM. So, the speed difference is purely marginal on my machine. I realise now, that is a purely selfish point of view and there will be many with older machines who would have had problems with Vista but will relish W7. Not that M$ had that in mind with W7, rather it was the burgeoning mini notebook market which provided the incentive.
I realise too that liking or hating the changes to the taskbar and GUIs in general is purely subjective...some are going to like 'em and some ain't. The fact that I fall into the latter category should not really detract from the OS itself.

Apart from doing away with the need for improved hardware though I can see no real advantages W7 has over the current (updated) Vista. Most 'experts' agree that W7 is a cut down, slimmer version of Vista so, taking that as a given, why then is W7 so wonderful and Vista a piece of cr*p? Here is a typical comment:

[i:1ju5anzv]In a backhanded compliment, experts say Microsoft

Hey Dave - Yes, I do agree with all those points of improvement. It just gets up my nose when 'experts' are continuing to bag Vista and extoll the virtues of W7 while, in the same breath, admitting they are very similar.

What you are saying is 100% correct. Vista was too big a step in one hit...it was also the victim of some unfortunate timing and lack of support from software publishers and hardware manufacturers.

To a large extent W7's warm reception has piggy backed off Vista...I can't help but wonder if there was never a Vista and XP continued until now, would W7 still be greeted with such enthusiasm.

cheers mate.....JIM